DIY Home: Add Open-Shelf Storage for Less Than $40

Got an empty wall and overflowing cabinets and drawers? Curb the clutter with inexpensive open shelves you can install in a day

Houzz Contributor. Meg is a budget-minded DIY lifestyle blogger at Revamp Homegoods (http://www.revamphomegoods.com). Her design philosophy is based on the concept that combining thrifty finds with a little blood, sweat and (sometimes) tears a stylish home can be achieved without breaking the bank

Houzz Contributor. Meg is a budget-minded DIY lifestyle blogger at Revamp Homegoods... More

No matter how many cabinets we have or how large our pantry is, my husband and I never seem to have enough kitchen storage. Things end up jammed into the cupboards with little organization — or even worse, there's a cluttered mess on our counters visible to all. We needed a budget-friendly solution to curbing our clutter, and we found it with open shelving.

Finding a location for the shelves was easy. We have a large open wall that I had painted with a trellis design. I knew the shelves would complete the look and give us the added storage we needed.

Installing open shelves in your own home is easier than you may think and can be done for less than $40. Here's how we did it.

Materials:

Four 11-inch shelf brackets

One 1-inch by 12-inch by 8-foot whitewood board

Eight 2½-inch wood screws

Eight 1-inch wood screws

White semigloss spray paint

Primer

White interior latex semigloss paint

First we prepared the brackets and shelves. We picked up our Ikea Ekby Valter Brackets for $4 each and gave each a coat of white semigloss spray paint. Next we cut the whitewood board in half to create two 4-foot-long shelves. Then we sanded both with 120-grit sandpaper and followed that up with one coat of primer and two coats of white latex semigloss paint.

With the paint dry, we began planning the placement of the shelves. We placed the brackets 32 inches apart and then allowed a 16-inch distance between the two shelves. Mount your brackets into a wall stud to ensure adequate strength.

Find placement of the next bracket by locating the stud 32 inches away from the center of the first bracket; use a 3-foot level to ensure that the second bracket is level with the first bracket. Mark the location and drill the bracket into place.

Next measure 16 inches up from the top of the shelving support on the mounted bracket and mark that location. Line up the shelving support of the soon-to-be-mounted bracket with that mark. Now use the level to ensure that both the upper bracket and the lower bracket are plumb and flush with each other. Drill the bracket into place.

Repeat the previous steps for the last bracket, ensuring that the bracket is level both vertically and horizontally.

With the brackets mounted, place the shelves onto the brackets and secure the shelves into the brackets with 1-inch wood screws (two for each bracket.) Finally, fill the screw holes on the shelves and the brackets with paintable wood filler. After they're dry, touch up the spots with white latex paint.

Now comes the fun part. Use the open shelving to display both practical items like baking ingredients and white dinnerware, and decorative items like this quirky nesting doll and Pike Place Market photograph. Just remember to display only items that will be used frequently, to avoid the accumulation of dust.

I am saving these instructions and printing them on paper for my husband. This is so perfectly, exactly what we want to do in our kitchen instead of the bulky, ugly upper cabinets we have now. Thanks so much for the easy step-by-step instructions. Also love that it is not expensive!